Press Release 15 February 2018

The building shell of the Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst in early February 2018. Interior design of the Passive House hospital
is currently underway. A test phase will follow scheduled completion next year. © Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst

Passive House hospital progressing

Visitors are impressed by the Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst construction site

Darmstadt/Frankfurt, Germany. The world's first hospital designed to the Passive

House Standard is currently under construction in the Frankfurt district of Hoechst.
The hospital’s building shell has already been completed, now the interior finishing is
underway. The construction of this highly energy efficient hospital should be
completed by next year, followed by a test phase lasting several months before the
building goes into full operation. The Passive House Institute in Darmstadt has been
advising on the project since the design phase and will continue with its consultancy
services throughout the entire duration of construction work.
Tours booked out quickly
The impressive construction site in Frankfurt Hoechst is the biggest in the city of Frankfurt and
can be seen from a great distance. After all, the future hospital building is 143 metres long and
over 23 metres tall. Besides the basement and ground floor, there are a further six storeys.
Following the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony in summer 2016, the foundation stone was laid
in November of the same year. The complex’s building shell was completed just a year later in
autumn 2017. The helipad on the roof will be set up this spring. Tours offered by the hospital
authorities in autumn last year were quickly booked out.

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Exterior view of the new building in Frankfurt. According to the new plans, unobtrusive shades will be used for the façade.
The total length of the hospital building is 143 metres and it stands over 23 metres tall. © wörner traxler richter

Pleased with the progress

Karsten Valentin, Managing Director of the Zentrale Errichtungsgesellschaft (ZEG) and
responsible for the new hospital building, is satisfied with the construction progress. Despite the
complex planning for technical building equipment, everything is going according to plan. After
completion of the building, a test phase of several months is planned. This is essential to ensure
the smooth day to day operation of the new hospital.

Interior finishing is well underway

The new building will have 664 beds and further capacity for 40 beds in the outpatient clinic. Ten
operating rooms and one hybrid operating theatre for minimally invasive surgery are foreseen for
the first floor. The sixth floor extends only across a part of the building and will accommodate the
technical systems. About 400 construction workers are currently working on the interior finishing,
including the laying out of model rooms. The installation of the more than 1000 triple-glazed
windows has begun.

Reduced running costs

The Klinikum Frankfurt
Hoechst aims to achieve two
main goals with the new
building. The first is to
optimise the internal
operational processes and
thereby significantly shorten
the distances within the
building for staff. Secondly,
since the building will
replace the current outdated
building from the 1960s,
running costs should be
reduced significantly.

If the energy demand of the hospital is determined in the conventional way, almost half of the future energy demand is
disregarded by the planners. The computer equipment as well as the magnetic resonance imaging equipment alone account
for eight and seven percent of the energy expenditure respectively. © Passive House Institute

Description from top: Heating, hot water generation, ventilation, cooling, lighting, computer equipment, hospital catering,
sterile supply, magnetic resonance imaging equipment, miscellaneous, “Bilanzgrenze üblicher Verfahren” - balance
boundary with conventional methods.
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Passive House concept pays off
Due to their intensive 24-hour use,
hospitals consume large amounts of
energy. From the accident and
emergency department and
operating theatre to patient rooms,
numerous technical devices are in
continuous use and the lights are on
practically all the time. "In addition to
providing improved comfort, the
Passive House Standard is
designed to reduce the energy
demand considerably. Therefore this
energy efficient concept is
particularly valuable for hospitals
with their high energy demand,"
explains Oliver Kah of the Passive
House Institute.

Improved thermal comfort

As a scientist, Kah is consulting on
the project with a focus on energy
efficiency. Among other things he
checks whether the planned building
components comply with the
required level of thermal protection.
Need of modernisation

In a baseline study carried out prior

to the pioneering project in The existing building of the Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst built in the 1960s.
Frankfurt-Hoechst, Oliver Kah and Among other things, the new Passive House Standard building will
his colleagues examined how the drastically reduce running costs. © Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst

highly energy efficient Passive

House concept can be implemented in hospitals. Of the roughly 2100 hospitals in Germany, many
are in need of modernisation and could profit from this study. The study made it clear that hospital
equipment has a major influence on the energy demand and must be considered to its full extent.
Generally speaking, the electricity consumption in a hospital is three to four times higher than that
of a residential building.

Hygiene-relevant requirements
At the same time, the implementation of the Passive House Standard in hospitals must meet
special requirements, for instance regarding operating theatres. "Hospitals have extremely high
hygienic requirements, including how exhaust heat from surgery areas is to be utilised," explains
Oliver Kah.

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Besides improved comfort, the Passive House Standard is designed to significantly reduce the demand for energy, which is
particularly valuable for hospitals with their high energy demand. © Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst

Energy-intensive hospitals
Conventional verification methods only take the energy demand for heating and cooling,
ventilation, water and lighting into consideration. "However, the distribution of energy shows that
hospitals are usually equipped with more devices and have energy-intensive processes. If the
energy demand is calculated using conventional methods, almost half of the future energy
demand remains unconsidered," says Kah.

Computer equipment and MRT

The computer equipment and magnetic resonance imaging devices alone account for eight and
seven percent of the energy applications, while the sterile supply accounts for a good four
percent. Kah explains: "At the same time, energy efficient devices are particularly advisable in
hospitals; as well as saving energy, these also reduce the cooling demand."
High level of thermal comfort
The Passive House hospital will also meet the needs of patients and visitors. In patient rooms, a
higher temperature is perceived as comfortable by the patients. In the hospital in Hoechst, the
temperature in patient rooms will be 22 degrees Celsius. Due to the good level of thermal
protection, the higher room temperatures can be met with a lower energy demand. In addition,
high differences between the surface temperatures and room temperatures will be avoided
thanks to the improved thermal insulation and the triple-glazed windows. As a result, thermal
comfort in the patient rooms will increase.
Fresh preheated air
The ventilation system with heat recovery which is present in every Passive House building
ensures that fresh preheated air constantly flows into the rooms. In addition, unpleasant odours
are efficiently removed by the ventilation system. Of course, it will still be possible to open the
windows in the Passive House hospital. Furthermore, the baseline study also showed that despite
the higher indoor temperature and the higher air change rate of the controlled ventilation system,
the heating demand can be limited to 15 kilowatt hours per square metre of treated floor area per
year (kWh/(m²TFA a) using the appropriate measures.

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Demolition of building
The costs for the replacement
building of the Klinikum
Frankfurt Hoechst are
estimated at 263 million Euros.
The German state of Hesse is
contributing around 55 million
Euros towards this energy To avoid thermal bridging, a layer of thermal insulation is laid between the end
efficient construction. The wall of the hospital building and the brickwork above it (roof parapet).
© Passive House Institute
existing building dating from the
1960s will be demolished after the Passive House hospital starts operating. Two further
construction stages are planned on the site.

Largest paediatric centre in region

The Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst is a maximum care hospital and is part of the Kliniken Frankfurt
Main-Taunus GmbH, which is the largest communal hospital network in the region. Of the 22
clinics, institutes and specialist departments, each year more than 36,000 in-patients and 80,000
outpatients are treated in Frankfurt-Hoechst alone. The hospital is also considered to be the
largest paediatric centre in the region. The Klinikum Frankfurt Hoechst has over 2,000 employees.
Nursing and health care professionals are trained here in five schools.
Impressive projects at the Passive House Conference
The construction of the Passive House hospital in Frankfurt is receiving widespread interest also
outside of the Rhein-Main region. Many professionals, particularly from Europe and North
America who are involved in energy efficient buildings in the health sector, have shown their
interest. One of the focal points at the International Passive House Conference in Munich will
be the interesting projects worldwide which have been built to the Passive House Standard. From
9 - 10 March 2018, experts from all over the world will convene at the MOC in Munich to present
projects, products and solutions for energy efficient construction and retrofits, including from
Germany, Europe, the USA, China and also Mongolia. www.passivhaustagung.org

Significant potential for reducing

energy consumption exists in
hospitals especially with regard to
facilities, e.g. medical equipment.
This chart shows the main energy
uses in a hospital as an example.

If energy efficiency is kept in mind

for all areas, from the building
envelope to the medical appliances,
as recommended for a Passive
House hospital, then about 40 to 60
percent of the energy can be saved
when compared to a conventional
new construction. The energy
efficient products required for such
savings are already available.
© Passive House Institute

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General information

Passive House
A Passive House is a building that does not require any conventional building heating on account of
its excellent thermal insulation. Such buildings are called "passive houses" because a major part of
their heating demand is met through "passive" sources such as solar radiation or the waste heat from
occupants and technical appliances. A Passive House thus consumes about 90 percent less heating
energy than existing buildings and 75 percent less energy than an average new construction.

Passive House & COP23 in Bonn

The United Nations (UN) explicitly mention Passive Houses as a possibility to increase the energy
efficiency of buildings and thus reduce global warming in “The Emissions Gap Report 2016”.

Pioneer Project
The first Passive House in the world was built in Darmstadt-Kranichstein
(Germany) 25 years ago by four private homeowners on their own personal
initiative. Ever since the homeowners moved in with their families in 1991, these
terraced houses have been regarded as a pioneer project for the Passive House
Standard. 25 years later, building physicists have attested to the unimpaired
functioning of the first Passive House and its unchanged low heating energy
consumption. With its newly installed photovoltaic system, the world's first
Passive House now utilises renewable energy and received the Passive House
Plus certificate for this reason. © Peter Cook

Passive House and renewable energy

The Passive House Standard can be combined well with on-site renewable energy generation. Since
April 2015, the new building classes "Passive House Plus" and "Passive House Premium" have been
available for this supply concept.

Passive Houses worldwide

Passive Houses buildings for all types of uses now exist everywhere. In addition to residential and
office buildings there are also kindergartens and schools, sports halls, swimming pools and factories
built as Passive House buildings. The first Passive House hospital in the world is currently being built
in Frankfurt am Main. Interest in Passive House is growing. In view of the consumption of resources in
industrialised countries and the need to contain global warming, municipalities, businesses and
private people are increasingly implementing new constructions or retrofits to the Passive House
Standard.

Passive House Institute

The Passive House Institute with its headquarter in Darmstadt (Germany) is an
independent research institute for highly efficient use of energy in buildings.
Dr. Wolfgang Feist is the founder of the institute. It holds a leading position
internationally with regard to research and development in the field of energy
efficient construction. The Passive House Institute is the organizer of the
International Passive House Conference and the related exhibition. The next
Passive House Conference takes place 9 - 10 March 2018 in Munich, Germany. © Peter Cook

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Pictures for editorial use: www.flickr.com/photos/passive-house-institute
The latest news on the subject of Passive House: www.twitter.com/IGPassivhaus
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Press contact:
Katrin Krämer, Press Officer
Passive House Institute Dr. Wolfgang Feist Ɩ Rheinstr. 44/46 Ɩ 64283 Darmstadt
Telephone: +49 (0) 6151/82699-0 Ɩ E-mail: presse@passiv.de Ɩ Internet: www.passivehouse.com